The Journey. Part 1
by Friday
Summary: An orginal cast of Jedi trainees get sent on a journey


Master Jjoh-Mnil, starts this story of which your reading. She starts it by going through the history room. The room which was dedicated to the preservation of Jedi History, it is crammed full of junk that no one really knows about or even could guess why it was worth preserving. Anyway, this story starts by the finding of an old plain amulet . . . 

The amulet that she found half buried under a pile of old clothes that reeked of centuries of neglect, it was rather plain but it looked, well odd. So not knowing why she did it, Master Jjoh- Mnil pocketed the little amulet and went for lunch. 

Spotting a council member, she immediately went to go report her day's findings and give the amulet to him, but as she approached the amulet started to glow, sending off a bright blue light. When she reached Master Yoda, the amulet sprung up and flew away toward the ceiling where it created a huge portal whose blue glow eclipsed the whole room casting a spell of silence, only broken when a child began to scream. It seemed to happen in slow motion as one by one, a few children seemed to get plucked out of their seats or away from their Masters and go hurtling toward the portal . . . 

Everything stopped. A count was taken. Six children were missing. All of the missing was humanoid, all between the ages of four and thirteen. The youngest was four, recently having arrived at the temple. The next in age was a set of eight-year-old twins, next an eleven-year-old padawan, Master Ternil's twelve-year-old apprentice, and finally a quiet child who at three weeks to thirteen had not acquired a master. According to the gossip around the younger members of the temple, he was going to be sent to the Agri-Corps or even become a miner (which in their minds was the absolute worst thing that could happen to a person). Four Males and two Females. In age order they were reported to be: Trelik Overnom, Kilnam and Hikon Repar, Cae-Pal Gwilym, Rill Yoni, and Zaihan Thonas. 

****************************************************************************** 

He could have sworn that every piece of his body either was aflame or being crushed. In his twelve years of living he had never felt such pain, not even when . . . He didn't want to think about that, instead he focused on getting his eyes and eyelids to obey him. Around him were several children from the temple, he recognized a few of them. The most recognizable was of course, Rill Yoni, they were yearmates, even if she had never spoken a civil word to him. The twins he recognized too, they were everyone's little darlings, treated almost as royalty from most of the Masters due to their unique relationship with the force and with each other, but right now their names wouldn't come to him. The others he didn't really recognize, although the older of the two did look sort of familiar. He heard a groan as Rill and the younger girl both woke up, by this time the pain had subsided enough that he could sit up and look around. It seemed that they were in some sort of lab, with a hexagonal shape, and sterile looking walls. The only other occupants of the room seemed to consist of some kind of egg, six in total with each having a different color, shape size and/or pattern, and each placed on a wall. "Where do you think we are?" the voice startled him out of his contemplation. When he looked back to the group, he found them all awake and staring. At him. 

It was disconcerting to find himself in the center of attention, when he had spent most of his life trying to avoid it. The voice came again more demanding than the first time, "So, where do you think we are?" It was Rill, and she didn't look to happy at the moment. He shrugged his shoulders, and stood up to inspect the eggs, not really listening to Rill as she began to find out who the others in their misbegotten party were. He half heartedly listened to the names of his fellow inmates of insanity. The twins identified themselves as Kilnam and Hikon, the girl whose name he didn't know was Cae-Pal, and the little boy was Trelik, he stored that information for later. He was just about to walk over to the eggs, when Rill's voice floated back into his conscious self demanding that he tell them his name. Turning around so he faced the group, he muttered "Zaihan." 

At that instant the roof with a blinding flash began to melt, slowly dripping down, each drop splashed into the middle of the chamber that they were in. It formed a pure slick looking coating, which seemed to continue to froth and bubble even as it formed the shape of a man. When the entire ceiling was gone, all that remained before them was an old man. He smiled kindly at them, and gestured at the eggs. " Do you know what those are?" he asked. All of the children except for himself and Rill obediently shook their heads "no". The old man smiled. He looked at each of the children and said, "These are my gifts to you. Each child receives one, they are your friends, your guardians and most importantly they are your protectorates. You must take good care of them." He stopped his speech there. Looking down at the assembled children, he smiled a sad weary smile. "Zaihan, you choose first." His head immediately shot up and he looked around. The old man smiled encouragingly, "Go on child, find which one calls out to you." He got up and slowly began to circle the eggs, he went around twice and finally stopped at the egg which was the most hidden, tucked in behind them and to their left, the furthest wall. The old man smiled again and looked at the remaining children, "Now you, Cae-Pal" He said. The girl got up and repeated the circling motions he had made, she finally stopped at the egg directly in front of him and to the remaining children's left. When she had chosen, the man instructed Trelik to go. He chose the one also at the back, to the back and right of the original position. Rill went next choosing the one across from Cae-Pal. The twins went together, Kilnam taking the upper left and Hikon the upper right. When all the children were standing in front of the eggs. The old man began to speak to them. "Inside these eggs are your partners. Each is as different and unique as you are. Beside each egg you will find and small computer. You will find that it contains not only data on your Kaelin, but on the other kinds that inhabit this world. Beside that computer is and amulet. The amulet will remain empty until such time as you are able to fill it." He paused for a few moments looking carefully at each child. "When your egg begins to glow reach out and hold it." With these words the old man disappeared and his metal form began to retract itself back into the ceiling, in the exact, but opposite, fashion it arrived. It kinda looked like someone had hit the rewind button on a vid recorder. 

The old man's departure, was seemingly forgotten as suddenly all the eggs began to glow. Without thinking each child raced to react as they were instructed. The fear and exhaustion of the weird journey lost in the excitement of the eggs that were hatching in the children's hands. 

Zaihan reached out and watched in total fascination, as the soft warm egg began to come apart in his hands. 

****************************************************************************** 

"It appears we chose well Zaladine." 

"Only time will tell Estervy, only time." 

****************************************************************************** 

Zaihan looked proudly at his new partner the little creature was sleeping peacefully after the shock of hatching. He sat quietly rocking the thing as if it were a baby, ignoring everything else in the room. Killany was his, the soft creature looked almost dragon like, it had a soft blue hide, and when it yawned, Zaihan saw it's very sharp teeth. Killany had large eyes that seemed to beg for protection and see through a person at the same time. Finally when he seemed more himself he looked around the room, each child seemed to be ignoring all the others, in fact the little one had fallen asleep with his arms around his Kaelin. The twins were curled up with each other and their Kaelin whispering softly. Cae-Pal was talking to her sleeping partner, and finally Rill was doing what she did best, bossing and fussing. He had to forcibly remove a smile on his face from that sight. He slowing got up from the floor trying really hard not to jostle his sleeping partner. When he turned back to the hatching site, he found a bag had been placed there and the stand where the eggs use to be, gone. He went over to the bag and opened it. Inside there were two pairs of clothing for himself, as well as lots of preserved food such as ration bars and little packets of dried fruit and vegetables. He almost gasped aloud at finding his lightsabre and his sleeping toy neatly tucked into the bottom of the bag. Closing the flap, he slung the bag over his shoulder and faced the rest of the group. They had all assembled in his distraction, under Rill direction of course, each had his or her bag over their shoulder, and were staring at him. "So slowpoke, are you coming?" Rill demanded. He ambled over to the group, being very careful not to wake Killany, as he approached the group. He made it in time too here Rill's next orders. "Right, okay you all are going to listen to me because I'm in charge. Form a line and we're going to leave." Not wanting to interrupt her drill session, Zaihan put up his hand. She fixed him a glare and huffed at him, so he asked "How, O Fearless Leader, do you think we are going to leave?" That set the rest of the kids to laughter, and she flushed red. She glanced around the room and finding no obvious exit seemed to diminish in stature. Zaihan smiled, it wasn't Jedi- like to seek revenge, but it sure was fun! Seeing Rill continuing embarrassment he'd help her out by pointing out that she was standing on the door. She immediately hopped off, and opened the door and the children set off for their greatest adventure. 

****************************************************************************** 

Outside was big and long, it seemed like they had been walking forever when in fact they had only been walking for several hours. The landscape was continual, and to Zaihan it seemed that they had been traveling in circles for the past hours of the journey. The trees were all a constant shade of green, the grass was the same thickness on the path that they traveled on, and seemed to keep the same irregular pattern off of it. Besides the Kaelin, Zaihan saw no other forms of life, heard no birds, or insects. The absence of the "normal sounds" spooked him and to top that off, any minute now he expected to come upon the hatchery, or whatever the building was that they had arrived in. So to pass the time he removed a lightslate, from his bag and began to document the movements of the group, after awhile he had fallen quite far back from the group, although he could still see them, and had learned that they were indeed going in circles. But as to the missing hatchery, Zaihan didn't know what was going on. In a few minutes, the sun began to set and the feelings of not going anywhere had worsened. 

The little one and his Kaelin had begun to mewl softly in their exhaustion and helplessness. The two of them had been getting progressively farther behind and were almost far enough back to impede on his path. The little was dark both in skin color and eye color, and his Kaelin was a cat type thing, it too was dark but it had purple eyes, and a strange symbol on its head, it only had to other oddities from the cats that Zaihan readily recognized, its tail was thinner and carried to form a trident shape, and it had a yellow band around its right front leg. The little guy had it picked up and riding on his shoulders, from the running dialogue Zaihan deduced that the Kailen was named Gretyn. After a while even the constant chatter had decreased and the little ones were dragging. He sighed at placed Killany in his bag, and scooped up the little guy, whatever his name was. After a while his shoulders and arms began to scream their fatigue at him, but when he looked down he found the little guy had fallen asleep in his arms. Even though it felt that he was carrying a Bantha he was loath to let go, the child was so small, and small children should have so place of peace and safety, even if it was only in their dreams. 

At the time where he was about to suggest that they stop to let the small ones sleep. He heard a scream 

***************************************************************************** 

The temple was in an uproar. The children that had been taken had been missing for far too long. The masters of the missing padawan were deep in the self blame stage and still it seemed that the only way to reach the children was the amulet. 

****************************************************************************** 

The scream came again, and Zaihan ran into action, gently he placed the little guy with the twins and gestured for Cae-Pal to follow him. The two of them ran through the seemingly tranquil woods as the screams got louder and louder. The moon had begun to come out, and almost surreally he thought that at least this planet had a regular night cycle with only one moon. Another blood curdling scream broke him out of his trance-like state. Zaihan felt that by the time that they actually managed to get there Rill would be dead. The trees finally seemed to break ahead of them, and there in the middle of the moonlit clearing was Rill . . .and nothing else. The two of the ran towards the screaming girl. Rill was still screaming when they reached her. As soon as the hysterical girl saw them she flung her arms around Zaihan, and said "I saw a bug!!" 


End file.
